Tilting mold for casting copper plates.



No. 805,738. PATENTED NOV. 28, 1905. B. W. LINDQUIST. TILTING MOLD FOR CASTING COPPER PLATES.

APPLICATION FILED MAY 20, 1904.

INVENTOR WITNESSES UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE. I

EDWVARD WV. LINDQUIST, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, ASSIGNOR TORALPH BAGGALEY, OF PITTSBURG, PENNSYLVANIA.

TlLTl NG MOLD FOR CASTING COPPER PLATES.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Nov. 28, 1905.

Application filed May 20, 1904. Serial No. 208,958.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, EDWARD W. LINDQUIST, of Chicago, Cook county, Illinois, have inven ted a new and useful Tilting Mold for Casting Copper Plates, of which the following is a full and exact description, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, in which Figure 1 is a plan view of a car used in the casting of blister-copper, on which are four of the tilting molds that constitute my present invention. Fig. 2 is a side elevation of Fig. 1, partly in section. I

The object of my invention is to facilitate and to cheapen the removal of blister-copper plates after they have been cast from a converter or otherwise and have become solidified through the chilling action of the mold and to remove the difiiculties incident to the practice which has been followed heretofore.

In specifically mentioning blister-copper I do not wish to limit myself to it alone, for the molds may be used to advantage in casting other metals and in casting articles other than the plates which I show in the present drawings by way of illustration.

In practice I have found it difficult, if not impossible, to place the molds upon a car in such uniform positions that their edges will be in close proximity as a means of preventing the loss of copper while being poured from the converter and while the car is being moved forward to bring the molds successively beneath the converter. In order to obviate and correct this defect, which exists in present practice, I have arranged journal-bearings onthe sides of each car in such exact position that when the lugs or trunnions of each mold are placed therein it will be forced to occupy the exact position upon the car required to cause the edges of the various molds to engage each other so closely that the escape of molten copper between them to thefloor becomes impossible.

Heretofore it has been the practice to use molds having ordinary round journals or trunnions, and I have found with these that it is practically impossible to keep the molds on the car in auniform level position while pouring is in progress. Even the weight of the entering molten copper will sometimes tilt a mold, so that its two edges will no longer be level. This produces a plate that is thick at one part and thin at the other and renders it practically impossible to obtain an accurate assay of the blister-copper contained in the plate. To obviate this defect in present methods, I provide the molds with double or dumb-bell-shape trunnions, as shown in the illustration, which have the effect of bringing and of holding each mold to a perfectly uniform level.

Plate-molds as used heretofore are usually provided with two holes through the trunnions for the insertion of a bar or lever by which the mold is tilted to discharge the copper plate. One of these holes is straight up and down when the mold is horizontal. The other hole passes laterally through the journal. I have found that these positions are inconvenient and that when the bar is inserted in the hole and an attempt is made to tilt the mold the mold rolls forward upon its rest, and the rolling moves the plate forward. This has the effect of jamming the plate against its neighbor and renders it diflicult to dislodge and drop it upon the floor, as desired. The difficulties and inconveniences of present practice in this respect are well known to those skilled in' the art. Each plate ordinarily weighs twohundred and fifty pounds, and to enable one man to remove it from the mold apparatus free from the defects above described is necessary. To correct these defects, I place lever-holes at an angle of about forty-five degrees on each side of each dumbbell trunnion. Fig. 2 makes itapparent that by this means each mold may be tilted and its plate easily dislodged and dropped upon the floor without any of the inconveniences above described and that in every position of the mold the hand-lever is in a convenient position to render the work of the operator effective.

Plate-molds as ordinarily made are too thin relatively to the body of molten copper poured into them for effective work and to insure their permanency or a reasonably long life while in use. Such mold warps readily and soon becomes cracked and burned out because of the intense heat of the molten copper. To obviate this, I provide molds that are at least as thick in cross-section as the plate or other object to be cast in them. Thus, for instance, I cast the ordinary blister-copper plate of commerce, that is usually two inches in thickness, in a mold whose cross-section is not less than two inches in thickness. This places the chilling efi'ect of the mold upon the molten copper on an equal footing with the heating eifect of such copper. If the mold is made thicker than the matrix for the molten copper,even better results will be obtained. However, there is a limitto which this can be economically carried, because a mold such as shown in Figs. 1 and 2 will weigh at least three hundred pounds, and when the weight of the plate itselfsay two hundred and fifty p0undsis added to this the two combined are about as great a burden as one man can handle with the lever as shown.

In the drawings, 2 represents the mold-car. 3 3 are the molds, made of metal which is at least as thick as the matrix in which the plate is cast. These molds are adapted for casting metal plates and are of greater horizontal than vertical dimensions. These molds have double trunnions 4: 4, the heads of which are preferably integral and of dumb-bell shape.

They rest upon correspondingly-shaped bearings 5 at the sides of the car and have leverholes 5 formed on the heads of the trunnions at an angle of about forty-five degrees from the vertical, as shown.

Doubtless many modifications in my invention will suggest themselves to those skilled in the art, since What I claim is A series of molds, each having double trun nions and mounted adjacently on a car; substantially as described.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand.

EDWARD W. LINDQUI ST.

Witnesses:

THOMAS W. BAKEWELL, GEO. B. BLEMING. 

